New Blog, New Content, Same Old Me

Hey! I'm glad you found this blog, but I've stopped updating this blog for quite some time. (Oh wait, you already knew that, right?). So head over to my new blog: Design Notes by Rasagy Sharma - where I'll be sharing my thoughts on Design, experiments with programming and lots of sketchnotes!

Since you've been following this blog, I would really appreciate some feedback on the new blog! So feel free to comment/Tweet to @rasagy!

PS: If you're reading this via a Feed Reader, here's the link to the new blog's feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RSDNotes.

Have a great holiday! :)

Mysore Memories - Youth Hostel Sketch

"Change is Nature"

Over the past few days (months) without a constant (even occasional) internet connection, things have been pretty different. I completed my summer internship/Practise School - 1 (part of my Engineering degree at BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus) at CFTRI, Mysore. It's one of the many CSIR Research Institute in India (hence you haven't heard of it :P). And it's been a refreshing experience, to say the least!

Anyway here's a sketch I made of the Youth Hostel, where I was staying during my Summer Internship in Mysore. Oh & this is the first Youth Hostel in India (they recently celebrated 100 years of Youth Hostels across the world!). I was living in a dorm with 12 other BITSians, and considering we have single rooms in my college, it sure was a different (== fun!) experience.

More on the Mysore trip later! (This cyber cafe's making me sick :x)

PS: Gave this sketch as a gift to someone I met at Youth Hostel. Oh & for the record, this was the view from my favorite spot in the Youth Hostel - awesome place to play flute in the night! :)

Sketch: Thanks!

I found another sketch I made during the vacations which I had forgotten about. One of my friend's mother wanted a sketch done on "Interpersonal Relationships", mainly related to Child-Parent relationship. So after looking online for a few references, I made this:

"Thanks" - To all the lovely parents out there!

First time I sketched for someone I didn't know personally! :D

My friend later called up and told that his mom really liked it. Yay!

So how's it? Any comments/suggestions? Would love to hear from you!

PS: As always, you can check out my other sketches here! And don't forget to subscribe!

PPS: Sorry for the sudden lack of Tech posts. It's going to be worth the wait! ;)

Sketch: Anime Girls for my sister

It's been a while since I posted a pencil sketch. I found these 2 rough sketches I made for my sister during the vacations that I forgot to post. :)

Both of them have been inspired by Anime/Manga wallpapers, which is pretty evident from the drawing style.

Oh & if you're wondering what in the world is Manga or Anime, basically it's Japanese style of comics/animation (or cartoons). Heard of DragonBallZ, Naruto, Pokemon, Bleach (I've been obsessed with Bleach lately!) etc? They're some of the popular Anime (Most Anime are made after a Manga is released). You can check one of my old post which had more about Manga/Anime & a few typical Manga Expressions! :)

So which Anime/Manga do you watch/read? Suggest me some good ones for sketching!

And don't forget to comment on the sketch. Any suggestions on how to improve? :)

Oh & do check out a recent post by Bing on "Pokemon" (and Pokemon Parody comics too!)

PS: As always, you can check out my other sketches here! And don't forget to subscribe!

PPS: I forgot that "girl" in the url is blocked in my campus. So well, sorry guys. :P

Sketch: Meet the Kala members - WAVES Prelude

Good news: Net's improved a lot in the past one week (compared to the day I last posted about the pathetic Internet, the net speeds have nearly doubled!). Anyway I thought maybe I should post about the other side of my campus too! Since everyone's busy working for WAVES (You don't know WAVES? Read on!), here's a sketch from my side as a "Prelude to Waves" :D

Kala, the fine-arts club of BITS Pilani Goa Campus, organizes events that aim to help others learn art, and mainly have fun while they do so (Check the sketches I made for Origami & Caricature workshop Notices!). This sem, we've increased our strength (Unlike all other clubs, Kala was an open club till now, ie. it comprised of only 6-7 core members who organized events open for all). 

Anyway this isn't meant to be a intro post to Kala. So coming straight to the point, here's a sketch/caricature collection I did of all the Kala members: 

Coordinator: Shipra; Sub Coordi: Soumya 

Core Committee: Nikhil, Sakshi, Aishwarya, Rasagy (Me! me!), Deepika 

New members: Divesh, Sutirth, Akhil, Madhu, Srishti, Suchismita, Yash, Kaushal

Special thanks to my friend Bing (Also known as Abhijeet :P), who let me play with his tablet for this weekend. He's been doing some kickass artwork (Check his blog!), so I just had to do something too! :D

Not to forget, we've WAVES Summer 2009, Cultural Fest of BITS Pilani Goa Campus, coming up this March. Everyone's busy trying to make the fest a big hit, and I'm sure it's going to be awesome this time (too)! Head on to the website to know about the events, special nites and more! :)

Sadly, being a part of the Controls & Event Management for Waves, I won't get a chance to take part. But then organizing the fest is a thrilling experience too! :)

Anyway how was the sketch? Any comment/suggestions on how to improve? Do let me know by leaving a comment!! :)

PS: Check out my other sketches here!

Sketch: Origami Workshop by Kala

Kala is the Fine-arts club of BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. A lot of workshops, competitions etc. are held by Kala to promote art in the campus. Apart from the traditional Sketching Workshops & Painting Competitions, Kala also organizes different (& fun!) events like Blind Art & Caricature Workshop.

This Friday, Kala's organizing an Origami Workshop, which is being taken by Akhil Oswal. Even though he's a student of our own college, he has been teaching Origami for a few years and it'll be fun to rediscover our childhood again!

I enjoy sketching notices for such workshops (Last time I made a caricature of Barack Obama for the Caricature Workshop). So here's a part of the notice I made for the Origami Workshop!

Pen Sketch for Origami Workshop

PS: Akhil actually showed us a 1-foot tall Origami Dragon, hence I sketched that too!

So how's the sketch? And have you tried Origami before?

Oh & if you're a BITSian, do pre-register for the workshop. It'll be fun!! ;)

Sketch: Lights, Camera, Action: The Winners!

First of all, apologies for being so late. The net in my hostel is still not letting me create a new post, so I finally gave up and came to the Computer Center.

So I was glad to see the response to my first contest that I started on New Year's eve :)
Here are the winners:
* Drum Roll *

1. Madhan aka Darwinci (Blogs here)
2. Ankit
3. Avinash
4. Nidhi aka Keeper of Keys (Blogs here)
5. Prateek (Blogs here)

(Other 2 don't blog often :P)

I'll make the sketches as soon as I get a reference image from everyone!

PS: For those who're left out, start bugging Abhijeet. He just got a new tablet ;)

Oh & I went to one of the TV studios I used to act at and made a sketch of one of the cameras (Never got a chance to be behind a camera before!). They've been using the same ones for the past 10 years, which is weird because the Video Editing rooms now have amazing Macs (Each with 3 LCDs and really high end config.. Awesome!). Anyway here's the sketch:


How's it? Would love to hear your comments!

PS: Any other ideas for a contest? Do let me know!

PPS: Check out all my sketches here!

Sketch: Happy New Year + Contest!

Here's the official post wishing you a 

Happy New Year!!

PS: Like the sketch/caricature? Read on to know how to get one for you! :D

2008 was a great year, but I'm guessing you've already seen/read a lot about "10 Best blah blah of 2008". (Or what to do this holiday @ Google Blog :D) And everyone's busy sending greeting messages (& I'm in a hurry too!), so I'll keep this short. 

I wanted to do something for my blog readers, so I thought of having a small contest (Inspired by some popular Design Blogs!). But since I can't offer much, I decided to make use of the pen tablet I have for a few days and make a sketch/caricature (or whatever you like to call it :D) of   4  5 of my Blog Readers! (Like the one above!) All you have to do, is a leave a comment, about "Your 5 Goals for 2009".

The  4  5 lucky people will be decided as following:

• The First two people who leave a comment on this post.
• Two Three people selected at random (Yes i'll draw lots) from the rest of the people who comment.

Every person is counted only once :P and please leave a comment using your Gmail id so I can contact you for a reference pic (Or leave your email id.. though I prefer the former).

So well, the rules are simple. Leave a comment about "Your goals for 2009" before 6:00 PM, 2nd January 2009 3:00 PM, 4th January 2009 (Indian Standard Time) and you'll have a chance to get a nice (I'll try my best :D) sketch/caricature :)

And well, here are my 5 goals for 2009:

1. Have a great time during Quark (Tech Fest) & Waves (Cultural Fest) at BITS Pilani, Goa Campus.
2. Try and learn Designing (hopefully get the Creative Multimedia Course).
3. Explore Silverlight (Heard it?) & C#.
4. Sketch regularly (Once a week).
5. Manage decent grades (Now that's a tough one!)

Tell me your 5 goals for 2009, and get a chance to have your own sketch as a New year gift! :D

Oh & don't forget to subscribe to my blog to recieve instant updates of my posts (I'll announce the results in the next post!)

PS: This is my first try at having a contest. If it goes well, I'll try and take out more time for such contests! :)

PPS: Oh & if you like the idea of the contest, let your own blog readers also know about this contest by linking to this post! ;)

Update: I'm leaving for Goa, so I decided to shift the deadline a little further (and as pointed in the comments, now I'll make 5 sketches). I felt like making the best use of the tablet till I have it :D

Sketch: Goodbye seniors!

Another sem passed, and what followed was something I always hate doing - Saying Good bye. Half of the 4th year batch, said good bye to the campus, and will be now heading for PS (PS=Practise School, ie. Internship).

This batch has been the most talented one till now, responsible for starting nearly every big club/deptt (and making other things BIG!) I got a chance to work with some of the best people I've ever met, and they'll always continue to inspire me.

Anyway switching from the "senti" mood, here's a sketch of the two seniors I'll miss the most, Vandith Bhaiya & Manasa Di. (I had to settle for a digital version after ruining a pen sketch :X) Both were members of the Waves Organizing Committee, and have taught me much more than just organizing a fest.

A few other seniors who are leaving are Piyush (Waves), Abhinav Lakhotia (Waves), Upneet (Drama), Parsani aka Chief (Spons) and Aditya Rao (Spons).

A formal Farewell was given last year to the whole batch (And I wrote about a few of them in my Farewell post), and now they'll be off to different parts of India (And abroad) for their PS.

Best of luck to all of you! Will miss you!

Sketch: Tired

"And so he sat down, tired,

Still lost in that thought,

Of what he won in this war,

And what all, he had lost."

If you've been seeing my sketches for a while, you must've figured the difference in the style. I made it using a Pen Tablet!! :D

Yup, I got my hands on one of my dream tools (though only for some time) - an iBall Pen Tablet that can be attached to my laptop. Thanks alot to Sai for lending it to me for a day (It's exam time, so he wasn't using it :D)

Oh and for those who are wondering why the theme is similar to one of my old sketch, well the "inspiration" is the same :|

PS: Idea taken from someone's deviantArt Gallery. Campus net won't let me open deviantArt, so well, thanks whoever you are! ;)

Comments welcome!

PPS: Check out all my sketches here!

Sketch: Thank you Adil Sir!

From what I've learnt this sem, Designing is an art. You can't teach anyone Designing, you can only inspire one to learn it. And this sketch is for someone who knew how to do that best!

Adil Mistry, BITS Pilani Alumni (Graduated in 1979), teaches Multimedia at Central TAFE, eCentral Campus, East Perth, Australia. That's all I knew about him when he came to BITS Pilani, Goa Campus to do his sabbatical by taking up the Creative Multimedia elective. Though I was very keen to take the course (As I've always been weak at the Designing part), I wasn't enrolled (As I posted before, stupid Campus rules - Only for 3rd/4th yearites :|). But after attending the first class, the whole I'm-not-enrolled-so-shouldn't-attend syndrome vanished. * Poof *

From learning basics of designing, to watching animation (& scary) movies, to trying cool effects in Adobe Premiere, I had fun in every class :D

Anyway, after a short farewell dinner (a day before), Adil Sir left today. So I decided to give him a small sketch just to thank him for inspiring us all! :)

Who knows, I might end up being a Designer! (Would love too :D) I'll make sure I remember whom to credit my success then!

We'll miss you Sir!

PS: Now that I look at it, I feel I should not hate a ruler so much! :P

PPS: Check out my other sketches here!

Caricature: Barack Obama!

Note: Yoy! My blog just crossed 8,000 hits!! Thanks to everyone who's been checking it regularly!

On Saturday (15th November), I organized a Caricature Workshop in our campus (On behalf of Kala, the Fine-arts club of our campus). Caricatures are different from sketches as they tend to exaggerate some particular part of the sketch/figure. Mr. Naguesh Sardesai, popular Cartoonist & Caricature artist, helped us understand the basics of Caricature & Cartoons.

Here's a caricature I made for the notice (My first Caricature :D). The concept was (shamelessly :|) taken from Jit's amazing blog. So if you like this caricature, I'm sure you'll love his work!!

So here's Barack Obama for you!

Liked the sketch? Any comments? Would love to hear from you!

PS: Check out my other sketches here!

Sketch: Wall-E

Here's a sketch I made for a friend's B'Day Card : Wall-E
(from the Disney & Pixar movie Wall-E :P )

She made sure I saw the movie (I've not even seen the "blockbusters"), and I fell in love with it! The story is amazing, and animation is just what you would expect from Pixar. If you can, download BUY THE DVD and watch it!!

So here's the sketch for the person who inspired me to watch Wall-E :D

So how's the sketch? Oh and have you seen the movie? Would love to see your comments!

Sketch for my lovely Sister!

After the last two "Techy" Posts on 10 GMail features you MUST know! and Feed me, Google Reader!, I decided to take a break. If I were to continue writing only Tech articles, then I would rather rename my blog (Infact Aju suggested: "Google Tips n Tricks". lol!).

This vacation, all my plans of "Learning Sketching" went flop. The last time I touched those long, green, sketching pencil was more than a month back. Home has made me lazy :| . But finally, I got a reason to sketch!!

26th July, is was my cute sister's B'Day! And here's a part of the Card I made for her! :)

She loves dancing and singing, hence the dancing girl :)

PS: For those who have been reading my blog, did you notice that this sketch, just like that of BITS Pilani Goa Campus & a Girl (from LP's video), is also a "Pen-Sketch". Guess they are more fun to make :D

World of Manga & Anime Expressions!

Since alot of my fellow bloggers have been active this week (Like Bing, Doodie, Pao, Exec, Gooner...) I didn't want to stay behind :)

I have always loved watching cartoons, be it all-time classic Tom & Jerry or digitally rendered Galactik Football, I've been fond of them all. Though I hardly had cable during my school days, I remember making good use of it whenever I got a chance :D

I wasn't much into comics though. First, coz I only got silly ones like Chacha Chaudhary or less famous ones which appeared in random magazines. Second coz these also had boring artwork. But thanks to my friend Thriddas, I found the new world of comics (E-Books though, I miss the feel of paper now..). and then came Anime & Manga!

Fine. Coming to the point, Manga is a typical Japanese style of Comics (They are in different types though). Anime is the animated form of it. Though not many of us differentiate Anime from regular cartoons, shows like DragonBallZ, Pokemon, Shin Chan, Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach are some of the popular Anime shows (/Manga).

So for those nerds who still couldn't figure it out after all those wiki links, maybe this'll help:

A Glimpse of the world of Manga & Anime Expressions

[As usual, hover mouse for info!]

Comments Welcome! ;)

PS: I got a treat from my dad on Father's Day. Wohhoo!! \m/

Sketch - Failure

For some, it marks the end of their journey.
For some, it marks the start of a new one.

Sketch - Failure

Hav u ever known the right path,
but still walked the wrong way?
Hav u been mocked, laughed at, scolded,
& "I'm Sorry" is all you could say?

- RaSh

Sketch: BITS Pilani, Goa Campus :)

BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. Its been nearly a year since I visited this place, which has now become my home, something without which I don't want to imagine life...

My exams will be getting over after a few days, and then I won't see the campus for more than 2 months!! No meeting friends at mongi, no maggi at nesci, no walks around the campus, no lectures & tuts (Well I hardly attended any, but I'll miss CP tut!), no late night net surfing, no downloading random clips from DC, NO ZATAKA... The list goes on...
Anyway since I'll really miss campus (Already feeling saddy saddy... though I'm still in my room), here's what I made today:

BITS Pilani Goa Campus : With Chalk :P

Nah it aint chalk... Its a "Full Page" Pen Sketch :)

Click here to see the original sketch!

Will miss the campus alot. Ironically most of my fellow bloggers have been posting about how they are missing their home... Well yeah I'll miss this home!

Enjoy!

Sketch - Girl

Sketch - Girl

Inspired by the song video: Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park, I decided to experiment with a different style of sketching. This sketch is from one of the scenes of the same video.

Another video of the similar type is that of Drive by Incubus.

Here are the links (incase you have amazing net which doesn't block sites like orkut & picasa & designer.com):
Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCg3EgMXmqs

Drive by Incubus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zN9vd9WUiA

For the fellow BITSians, there's always DC \m/ [Search or take them from my share!]

More updates on sketches soon!!

:)

PS: Another new version of Breaking the Habit song video is also there... complete 3D Animation!

PPS: BTW my profile pic is a sketch rendered later in the computer... If you know any software specifically made for this purpose, plz do tell me!! :)